Federal Republic of Germany Patent Application No. 19958112.6 discloses a splice protection sleeve comprising a shell closed by two flanges. Each flange defines a passage for a cable. The flange includes means for mechanically clamping the cable. These means are intended to be positioned around the cable once the latter has been placed in the passage and to clamp it. Independently of these clamping means, there is provided a seal interposed between two rings into which the cable is slipped. At least one of the rings can move along the cable and is displaced by means of a slide. This ensures both mechanical clamping of the cable and sealing of the splice protection sleeve.
However, this is achieved only by putting up with a lengthy fitting operation to be carried out since it is necessary, on the one hand, to put the clamping means in place and, on the other hand, to clamp the seal between the two rings.
The subject of the invention is a quick-fit splice protection sleeve.
According to the invention, the slide is a frustoconical threaded part which is screwed into the flange by being slipped into the passage via its larger transverse surface and pushing back, as it is being screwed in, directly or via the clamping means, the moveable ring towards the other ring and tightening the clamping means around the cable.
Thereafter, the clamping means are put into action and the seal is deformed between the two rings by one and the same movement of the frustoconical threaded part. There is no longer, as previously, the need to carry out two successive operations for this purpose. When the frustoconical threaded part starts to move, it pushes the moveable ring back towards the other ring, which is preferably immobilized in the flange, and then when the moveable ring is moved over a certain distance it comes into abutment, while the threaded part continues to move, tightening the clamping means around the cable, thereby ensuring that the cable is mechanically clamped.
Furthermore, the present invention relates to clamping devices. Clamping devices of this kind which are suitable for each cable diameter are already known. When on site it is necessary to go from a small-diameter cable to a larger-diameter cable, a new clamping device suitable for the new diameter has to be provided.
The invention remedies this drawback by means of a device which allows most of the same clamping device to be maintained when going from a small-diameter cable to a larger-diameter cable.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the device for clamping a cable comprises a ring on which fingers lying approximately perpendicular to the plane of the ring are each mounted in the form of a hinge on the same side of this plane. The free end of each finger terminates in a claw turned towards the axis. On the side of the plane where the fingers do not lie, there is provided a means which, by shape complementarity, is intended to cooperate with another clamping device of the same shape but having a ring diameter greater or smaller than a value equal to the largest radial dimension of the fingers.
When it is necessary to go from a small-diameter cable to a larger-diameter cable, all that is required is to remove the clamping device of the same shape but of smaller ring diameter which, by shape complementarity, cooperated with the clamping device of larger diameter that was left in place in order immediately to obtain a clamping device suitable for the larger-diameter cable.
During mounting, the fingers are pushed back inwards, that is to say towards the axis, especially by a nut, until the claws of the fingers penetrate the cable and thus immobilize it, without any possibility of the cable moving longitudinally, or of rotating either. To make it easier for the nut or other element to act by pressing on the fingers, that portion of a finger axially furthest away from the ring is bevelled, the top of the bevel being closer to the axis than the rest of the bevel. The nut thus comes into contact with the finger along an inclined surface which means that the finger is pushed back towards the axis as the nut advances.